Exclusive: Q2 2015 US Retail Forex Profitability Report, Profits and Accounts Down
- The Q2 US profitability and active trader report showed IB remaining on top, while US accounts and profitability at other brokers declining

Being released today is the Finance Magnates' Q2 2015 US Retail Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term Profitability and Active Accounts report. During the quarter, average US customer profits declined on both a weighted and non-weighted calculation. On a weighted basis, 36.2% of US forex traders were profitable in Q2, compared to 36.4% in Q1. Similarly, non-weighted calculations showed profitability of customers at the average broker at 32.3%, which declined from 33.8% in Q1.
The non-weighted figure, which calculated broker averages equally and doesn’t take into account the number of their customers, was effected negatively by TraderStation. During the quarter, only 24.6% of TradeStation customers achieved profits in their accounts, compared to 32.5% in Q1. The decline was notable for the broker as their customers have typically reported profitability in the 32% to 38% range in previous reports.

Finance Magnates' Q2 2015 US Retail Forex Profitability and Active Accounts Report
Falling Account Figures
Dipping to a multi-year low, active account figures in the US dropped 4.0% from Q1 to 91,811. During the Q2 period, yet another Forex Broker Forex Broker In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. Read this Term exited the US market. This time around it was giant Citigroup, which closed its entire CitiFX Pro retail forex unit, with US account holders being transferred to FXCM. The exit of Citigroup could be considered a symbol of the overall US industry, which continues to experience a multi-year trend of contraction of active traders in the country.
Among retail forex brokers remaining in the US, only InteractiveBrokers (IB) revealed an increase in accounts, growing active traders by 4.4% to 31,732. The top forex broker in the US for both active traders and profitability (46.5%), IB’s overall brokerage business has had a solid first half of 2015. Despite absorbing a greater than $100 million loss due to January’s Swiss franc move, the broker has reported strength in its forex, stock and futures trading business, with the firm’s stock price outperforming peers and hitting all-time highs.
In contrast to IB, both OANDA and FXCM reported a sharp decrease in active traders during Q2, with client numbers dropping over 9% at each broker. Asked about the decline, a representative at FXCM declined to provide an explanation to Finance Magnates about the active trader changes in their US business.
At OANDA, the broker attributed the decline in US active traders to the migration of non-US account holders to foreign entities. Answering to Finance Magnates, Drew Izzo, CMO at OANDA stated, “The reduction reported amongst our US client base is a reflection of a proper migration of foreign customers to their appropriate entities. Tracking customer moves to the appropriate domicile provides them access to the best possible product set based on the region they currently reside in, something we're committed to here at OANDA.” Izzo added that overall, OANDA’s global client figures are growing.
(Note: Figures for MB Trading are estimates)
Previous Reports: Q1, 2015, Q4 2014, Q3 2014, Q2 2014, Q1 2014, Q4 2013, Q3 2013, Q2 2013, Q1 2013, Q4 2012, Q3 2012, Q2 2012, Q1 2012
Being released today is the Finance Magnates' Q2 2015 US Retail Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term Profitability and Active Accounts report. During the quarter, average US customer profits declined on both a weighted and non-weighted calculation. On a weighted basis, 36.2% of US forex traders were profitable in Q2, compared to 36.4% in Q1. Similarly, non-weighted calculations showed profitability of customers at the average broker at 32.3%, which declined from 33.8% in Q1.
The non-weighted figure, which calculated broker averages equally and doesn’t take into account the number of their customers, was effected negatively by TraderStation. During the quarter, only 24.6% of TradeStation customers achieved profits in their accounts, compared to 32.5% in Q1. The decline was notable for the broker as their customers have typically reported profitability in the 32% to 38% range in previous reports.

Finance Magnates' Q2 2015 US Retail Forex Profitability and Active Accounts Report
Falling Account Figures
Dipping to a multi-year low, active account figures in the US dropped 4.0% from Q1 to 91,811. During the Q2 period, yet another Forex Broker Forex Broker In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. Read this Term exited the US market. This time around it was giant Citigroup, which closed its entire CitiFX Pro retail forex unit, with US account holders being transferred to FXCM. The exit of Citigroup could be considered a symbol of the overall US industry, which continues to experience a multi-year trend of contraction of active traders in the country.
Among retail forex brokers remaining in the US, only InteractiveBrokers (IB) revealed an increase in accounts, growing active traders by 4.4% to 31,732. The top forex broker in the US for both active traders and profitability (46.5%), IB’s overall brokerage business has had a solid first half of 2015. Despite absorbing a greater than $100 million loss due to January’s Swiss franc move, the broker has reported strength in its forex, stock and futures trading business, with the firm’s stock price outperforming peers and hitting all-time highs.
In contrast to IB, both OANDA and FXCM reported a sharp decrease in active traders during Q2, with client numbers dropping over 9% at each broker. Asked about the decline, a representative at FXCM declined to provide an explanation to Finance Magnates about the active trader changes in their US business.
At OANDA, the broker attributed the decline in US active traders to the migration of non-US account holders to foreign entities. Answering to Finance Magnates, Drew Izzo, CMO at OANDA stated, “The reduction reported amongst our US client base is a reflection of a proper migration of foreign customers to their appropriate entities. Tracking customer moves to the appropriate domicile provides them access to the best possible product set based on the region they currently reside in, something we're committed to here at OANDA.” Izzo added that overall, OANDA’s global client figures are growing.
(Note: Figures for MB Trading are estimates)
Previous Reports: Q1, 2015, Q4 2014, Q3 2014, Q2 2014, Q1 2014, Q4 2013, Q3 2013, Q2 2013, Q1 2013, Q4 2012, Q3 2012, Q2 2012, Q1 2012